Before his team’s bowl game last December, Boston College football coach Steve Addazio went into the more than two weeks’ worth of practices with the spring in mind, especially for the quarterbacks he was expecting to take the reins.

He had redshirt junior Darius Wade and redshirt freshman Anthony Brown split the bulk of the reps, getting as familiar as they could as the Eagles began the process of expanding and adding new wrinkles to their offense.

The intent was to give the quarterbacks a jump start, knowing their competition for the starting job would start as soon as the bowl game ended.

It made the learning curve less steep when the Eagles opened spring practice in February, but both Wade and Brown wanted to show that they would get a handle on the offense as quickly as possible.

“It’s a lot,’’ Wade said. “But it’s something that we’re all highly capable of being able to do. The biggest thing is the change of philosophy going from our typical, just regular huddle, kind of ground-and-pound.

“Now we’re doing this up-tempo that you guys were able to see in the bowl game. So having this amount of time where we’ve already laid the foundation, we’re just building upon that, which is exciting. It’s a challenge, but it’s very exciting.’’

The Eagles’ spring game on Saturday — which started as a crisp and regimented half of football with Wade leading the Maroon team and Brown leading the Gold and ended with the sides settling for a 17-17 tie — was the first glimpse of exactly how much both quarterbacks have been able to put together.

Wade completed 10 of 17 passes with the Maroon squad, throwing for 120 yards, putting his roll-out abilities on full display and making full use of his weapons at tight end and running back. He switched to the Gold side and connected on 6 of 10 passes for 74 yards.

Brown went 4 for 15 with 34 yards with the Gold squad. When he switched jerseys, he completed 6 of 12 passes for 50 yards. He wasn’t hesitant to take shots deep down the field, but he struggled with accuracy, throwing a pair of interceptions.

While he wouldn’t say whether either quarterback took an edge in spring practice, Addazio said both showed consistency.

“There was a lot of productivity by the quarterbacks, and that was a good thing,’’ he said.

For Brown, the first taste of live action at Alumni Stadium with fans in the stands, officials on the field, and a true game environment was a learning experience.

“It was a good experience having the stadium a little packed, going out there with my team and trying to compete,’’ Brown said. “It was a little rough, but it will be better days. We’ll get through it.

“I have to work on my long-throw accuracy. We have these three months to get better and keep working and just get the timing right. So by the time [fall] camp rolls around, we should all be fine.’’

Wade came into the spring as the presumed starter and will do so going into training camp, but the competition is still very much an open one. He navigated a similar scenario a year ago when he battled with transfer Patrick Towles, outplaying him in last year’s spring game.

“It’s an interesting thing to navigate,’’ Wade said. “Pretty much the main thing is just worrying about yourself, for the most part, worrying about what you can control. A lot of times you start worrying about what they’re doing and you kind of get sidetracked if you aren’t focused on the most important thing, which is just improving yourself. The competition, that’s exactly what that does. It forces you to really not be content and focus on every play and make sure that you know every play is important because you’re being evaluated.’’

For Brown, this is all new terrain.

“I tried to look to him for advice sometimes,’’ Brown said of Wade. “I also asked other people from back home that have been in the same situation how they would handle this. Try to stay to yourself, try to make yourself better, don’t always worry about what he’s doing or what somebody else is doing, because then it will [affect] your game, it’ll hinder your game. I’m just trying to grow up, in a sense, on the field.’’

By the end of the first half, each offense was sitting on nearly 50 plays. In the second half, Addazio trimmed the quarter length to 10 minutes, before loosening the reins to a more informal atmosphere at the end.

“We did more this spring than we’ve ever done,’’ Addazio said. “We did a lot of different things — from one-back to two-back to empty to throw to run to play-action. We just did a lot more. And I thought that’s a reflection of having more depth, more guys, quarterback play, etc. So I thought we saw a lot of that today.’’

Perhaps most importantly, the Eagles survived the spring with only one significant injury: Offensive lineman Elijah Johnson [knee]. who will likely miss the start of the season.

“Just great to come out of there healthy and have a little fun at the end,’’ Addazio said.

“Closed off spring, just had a really fantastic, positive spring. Got a lot of work done all spring long. Really like the work ethic of this team, like the direction of this team, like the attitude, the passion for the game. It’s a great group of guys we have here right now and we’re really looking forward to a tremendous offseason.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @julianbenbow.